Garment bagging means



June 26, 1956 w. RATLIFF 2,751,734

GARMENT BAGGING MEANS Filed Aug. 14, 1953 IN VEN TOR.

a iwg United States Patent GARMENT BAGGING MEANS Wayne Ratliff, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application August 14, 1953, Serial No. 374,230

4 Claims. (Cl. 53-241) This invention relates to containers and more particularly to garment bags for protecting garments incident to delivery of cleaned garments by a cleaning establishment to the customer. The application of the long bags to such garments has always been a problem which while being constantly present has not been satisfactorily solved. Generally, heretofore, the placing of the garment within the bag has involved hanging the closed end of the bag on a hook disposed adjacent to a rod depending from a ceiling and then pulling the bag up over the rod, then hanging the garment on the lower end of the rod and finally lowering the bag over the garment. Numerous attempts have been made heretofore to provide a bag in which some sort of garment hanger strap was incorporated with a frangible connection between the end of the garment hanger strap and the bag so that the garment could be hung on the lower end of the hanger strap means and the bag then broken free of the strap and pulled over the garment. These attempts have failed commercially due to the fact that too often the frangible connection between the strap and the bag was too strong and attempts to pull the bag free from the strap resulted in such unsightly tearing of the bag as to render it useless.

The present invention, taking into account the aforesaid deficiencies, has for its principal object the provision of a garment bag package assembly for a quantity of garment bags and hanger straps in which the garment hanger straps are not secured to the individual bags and in which package the assembled bags and the garment hanger straps are mounted on a hanger bar adapted to be mounted in suitable bracket means; the hanger straps for each package being susceptible of re-use by the manufacturer of the bags.

A further object of the invention is to provide a combined garment bag and hanger strap assembly in which the removal of the bag from the common support for the bag and its hanger strap is accomplished by a slight and non-disfiguring rupture of the bag only.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a garment hanger strap for garment bags which is formed from a narrow strip of paper and folded at the points of engagement with the strap support means and at the point of engagement with the garment hanger to provide the necessary thickness to prevent rupture at those points.

With the foregoing objects in view, together with such additional objects and advantages as may subsequently appear, the invention resides in the parts and in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts, disclosed, by way of example, in the following specification of one mode of execution of the invention; reference being had to the accompanying drawings which form a part of said specification and in which drawings:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a garment bag and the associated hanger strap embodying the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a slightly reduced perspective view of a package of the garment bags and hanger straps arranged ready for installation on a bracket means at the point of use,

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the package installed on the supporting bracket means,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, sectional view taken generally on the line 4--4 of Fig. 1; the mid portion being omitted for the sake of compactness of the figure,

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the upper end of the hanger strap element on the same scale as Fig. 4,

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on the line 6-6 of Fig. 3 showing details of the supporting bracket,

Fig. 7 is a front elevation of the assembled bag and hanger carried by the supporting bracket and showing a garment to be enclosed in the bag hung in the lower end of the hanger strap element and Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 but showing the bag detached from the bracket and pulled down over the garment.

Referring to the drawings, the garment bag 1 comprises a flattened paper tube of a size adapted to extend over a garment G. At its upper end the walls of the tube are closed except for a centrally disposed opening 2 through which a garment hanger H on which the garment is carried may extend. A convenient manner in which this partial closure may be formed is by folding the sides of the upper end of the bag over on themselves along lines extending at acute opposed angles to the plane of the bag and extending from the hole 5 to the upper edge of the back ply 6 is a series of perforations 7 effective to permit ready tearing of the bag from the supporting bracket when it is applied to the garment.

A garment supporting strap 8 is formed from a long A strip of paper having sufiicient tensile strength to support a garment and having the upper end thereof folded over on itself along lines transverse to the length of the strip to form several plies all adhesively secured to each other as best shown at 9 in Fig. 4; said folded end having a hole 10 extending therethrough disposed in registry with the hole 5 in the bag. The side edges of the lower end of the thus folded strip are folded over along converging lines to form a tapering end 11 and this tapered end is then transversely folded on itself and secured to the body of the strip to form a garment hanger hook engaging loop 12 extending below the lower end of the tube.

As prepared for use, a package is formed of a quantity.

of bags, each supplied with its inserted hanger strap, are

' stacked together with the holes therein aligned and maintained in alignment by a rod 13 having at the back of the stacked bags a head portion 14 adapted to engage a socket 15 in a bracket 16 mounted on a wall or other suitabiel location at the point of use. A spring clip 17 detachably engaging the rod 13 at the side of the stacked bags re mote from the head 14 serves to hold the rod assembled with the stack of bags and other binding means such as the adhesively secured side bands 18 to keep the stack of bags in lateral alignment.

In use, the bundle or stack of bags with their hanger straps is mounted with the head 14 of the rod 13 disposed in the bracket socket 15 and with the distal end of the rod supported in a hook 19 carried by the laterally projecting arm element 20 extending from the bracket above the assembly. The bracket is fixed to a wall or other sup port at a level above the floor at which garments hung from the loops 12 of the hanger straps will not touch the floor. After the bundle of bags is thus hung, the side bands 18 are severed or removed and the bags are ready for use. Fig. 7 shows the start of the application of a bag to a garment. The garment is carried by the usual bracket.

hanger and the hanger hook is engaged with the looped end '12 6f the outermost bag of "the stack mounted on the grasped and the bag is pulled downward rupturing the perforated line'7 and allowing the bag to be drawn'down over the garment until the hanger hook is brought through the opening 2 at the upper end of the bag as shown in Fig. 8. The hanger is then disengaged from the :loop and the bag and garment are removed "to storage or otherwise disposed of. The hanger 'strapso f the various bags are allowed to remain on the rod 13 until all of the bags are used and the rod is removed for replacement by a new stack or package of bags. The removed rod and straps may be returned to the manufacturer in whole or in part or may be discarded as'may be found most convenient. The advantages sought to be achieved by the previous proposals are thus realized in practice with important advantages. First, the packages of bags are capable of quick installation due to the pro-assembly on the supporting rods and second, the bags are readily applied to garments without the former disadvantage of occasional bags being so badly torn incident to being pulled oil the supporting rod or from the hanger strap or the equivalent thereof as to be unusable,

While the foregoing specification discloses one mode of execution of the invention, it is not to be deemed that the invention is limited to the exact form so disclosed, and it is to be understood that the invention embraces all such modifications in the parts, and in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts as shall come within the purview of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a garment bagging means comprising "a garment bag supporting 'rod extending horizontally from a support and disposed at an elevation above a floor substantially twice the length of a garment to be enclosed in a bag, a garment bag comprising a flattened paper tube having its lower end open and its upper end closed except for a smaller central opening suspended from said supporting rod, a separate paper strap disposed within said bag and having its upper end separately supported by said rod; said strap extending below the lower end of said bag and terminating thereat in a loop for enga'gement with the book of 'a garment hanger; said bag at the upper end thereof having a readily frangible portion extending upwardly from the point of engagement with said rod to the upper edge of the bag effective to allow saidbag to be torn from said rod and drawn over a garment carried by a garment hanger engaged in said looped end of said strap.

2. In combination, a garment bagging'means icomprising a bracket attached to a support at an elevation substantially twice the length of 'a garment and a garment hanger upon which the garment 'is carried; said bracket comprising a socket disposed adjacent the support and an arm projecting outwardly horizontally above the horizontal plane of said socket and terminating in a dependinghook disposed in said horizontal plane, and a garment b'ag package comprising a plurality of garment bags The outer lower {corners of the bag are then i smaller central opening suspended from said supporting 4 having open, garment receiving lower ends and partially 'c'lose'd upper ends and having aligned holes extending through holes at said upper fiends, a rod extending through said aligned holes, a head on one end of said rod engaging said socket; the opposite end of said rod projecting beyond said plurality of bags and engaging said hook; each of said bags having a strap element extending therethrough with one end of each of said straps being perforated and mounted on said rod and the opposite ends of each of said straps extending below the lower end of the bag through which it extends and terminating in a loop for engagement with the hook of a garment hanger. 3. A 'garmentb'a'ggin'g means comprising a plurality of flattened paper garment 'bags'stacked'i'n flat relation; each of said bags having an open lower end and an upper end closed except for a central opening for passage of a garment hanger hook therethrough, and each of said bags having an unattached longitudinally extending vstrap disposed therein and extending from the upper end of the bag through which it extends to a point below the lower end of the bag; all of said bags and the straps associated therewith having aligned holes extending through the upper ends thereof, a rod extending through said aligned holes, a head on one end of said rod, a removable clip on said rod at the side of said stacked bags remote from i said head, effective to hold said bags compressed against said head, and removable means engaging the side edges of said stacked bagsetfective to prevent independent movement of said bags about said rod and to hold said bags, in compressed condition. y

4. In combination, a garment bagging fmeans comprising a garment bag supporting means extending horizontally from a support and disposed at an elevation above a floor at least "equal to the combined length of a garment bag and a garment to be enclosed in said bag, a garment bag comprising a flattened paper tube having its lower end open and its upper end closed except for a means, a separate, elongated, garment'supporting member disposed within said bag and having the upper end thereof separately supported by said supporting means and its lower end "extending below the lower end of said bag and terminating in an opening for reception of a garment hanger hook; said bag at the upper end thereof having a readily frangible portion extending from the point of engagement of said bag with said supporting means to the edge-of said bag nearest to said point efiective to allow 7 'said bag to be torn loose from said supporting means 1,891,689 Randolph Dec. 20, 1932 42,182,156 McCarty Dec. 5, 1939 2,497,263 Johnston :Feb. 14, 1950 

